Now THAT Was a Bike - 2000 Trek Fuel
When the summer Olympics descended on Sydney, Australia, in 2000, it was only mountain biking's second appearance as a medal event at the Games. Hardtails still reigned supreme in the XC racing world, and even front suspension was occasionally skipped by riders looking for the lightest bikes possible.
When the big day arrived, Travis Brown, the 1999 NORBA National XC champion, rolled up to the starting line aboard a completely new full suspension bike from Trek, one that looks rather pedestrian by today's standards, but certainly turned heads when it was first unveiled. Handbuilt in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Brown's ride was still very much a prototype, even though the custom paint scheme suggested otherwise. Trek didn't want to miss a chance to show the Fuel's design to the world, so what would typically have been a raw frame had custom paint and graphics applied in order to make it look more production-ready than it actually was.
Road bike bar tape makes for extra-light grips, and it's easy to customize the thickness.
V-brakes were still very much in fashion in 2000, although disc brakes were getting lighter and more effective every year.
Compared to Trek's previous full suspension bikes - the VRX, the Y-bike and the 9500, the Fuel's link-driven single pivot suspension design looks much less archaic, and it's a testament to the longevity of the basic configuration that the Fuel remains a mainstay in Trek's lineup to this day. The bike's front triangle and chainstays were made from aluminum, while carbon seaststays were chosen to help reduce the overall weight.
Even with those carbon seatstays and a top of the line build kit the bike still weighed roughly two pounds more than a race hardtail at the time, but for Brown the additional comfort provided by the 80mm of travel made it worth it. According to Brown, the suspension wasn't that much of an advantage versus hardtails on the descents – after all, 80mm of travel only goes so far, and the suspension at the time wasn't nearly as refined as it is today – but it did help reduce fatigue over the course of a race. As for the extra weight, “Athletes are easily compulsed by weight, in both endurance and gravity disciplines, and I think we still regularly make net performance compromises for the sake of reducing weight. Weight is important but just one factor in a fast race bike,” says Brown.
The geometry of Brown's prototype Fuel had been designed around his personal preferences, and when it came time for the time the bike to go into production the head angle was steepened by one degree to 71 degrees, and the top tube was shortened. Interestingly, sixteen years later the angles of the original prototype aren't that far off from the current geometry of Trek's Top Fuel. Of course, the modern version of this bike is much lighter, made from carbon fiber, and rolls on 29” wheels rather than 26", but it does go to show that Brown was ahead of the curve with his ideas about the bike's ideal numbers.
The RockShox SID has taken home a gold medal every Olympic year since 2000, although at Sydney it was Miguel Martinez who ended up taking the win, while Travis Brown finished 32nd.
RockShox's sponsored riders received forks with Olympic edition stickers.
High end XC racing components have a reputation for being delicate, but Shimano's RD-M952 derailleur disrupted that notion with its impressive durability.
Nine speed cassettes had only been introduced one year prior, and triple ring setups up front were still the norm. That is, unless you were an elite racer who didn't have any need for a little ring.
Special thanks to The Pro's Closet for once again allowing us access to their treasure trove of historic bikes.
Photos courtesy of The Pro's Closet
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Damn, reality sucks sometimes.
I had a tough time getting my head around what's going on with this style rear end at first, I actually had to draw a picture to figure it out. Basically, you have one large pivot (lower pivot by the BB) that everything on the rear triangle rotates around. Everything attached to this pivot (including the upper seat stay) is drawing a big circle in relation to its distance (radius) from the lower pivot point (center of the circle). This circular path remains constant -- unless -- it is acted upon by a force that redirects it. That redirecting force is the upper link. The upper link is drawing its own circle in relation to its pivot, which is attached to the seat tube. Because the point at which the seat stay attaches to the upper link can't very well follow two different radius paths at once, something in the rear triangle has to give, and it appears that something is the seat stay. Although it could, theoretically, be any point on the rear triangle that is designed to flex up and down. There are quite a few manufacturers that have opted for this design instead of adding a pivot at the dropout, just google "flex stay suspension" and many different versions will pop up.
Keep in mind that the flex may be so minor that you can't see it, but if I'm seeing things clearly, something has to be flexing to accommodate the two different radius paths of the rear triangle and the upper link.
Of course I might be missing something here, maybe there's a pivot I'm not seeing....
Makes sense, sorta looked like a pivot . Rocker driven single pivot then?